October 2nd, 2013Day 1 - Wednesday

I'm sure I don't need to tell most of you my story. If you don't know anything about me, feel free to check me out. And you can contact me by sending an email to Harvey@bikerider.com

Today, I started from Drummond Road in Niagara Falls, Canada and rode along the Canadian shore of the Niagara River, south, to Fort Erie, and then over the Peace Bridge into the United States.

Just south of Buffalo, I had a back flat tire. I, of course, don't carry supplies. My comrades are always after me for this, but I always have a cell phone.

Anyway, I had to phone for my back-up to meet me with what I needed. The support vehicle was still in Niagara Falls, Canada, and had not yet left. I sat at the Buffalo Amtrak office awaiting it's arrival. Once it did arrive, it was a quick repair and back on the road.

To save battery power, I had turned off my gps tracking device. Now I turned it back on and started following its instructions. A few blocks later I realized it was trying to take me back home. Might have been a good idea, but not where I was headed.

I cancelled its program and reset it correctly. NOW we can continue.

It also routed me around Hamburg, NY, a new route to me. I actually liked the new route and it cut just a couple of miles (kms) off the route.

However, it didn't know that way down the road, the bridge was out. I turned off my gps tracking, had the vehicle meet me, we worked our way around the bridge, and on the other side turned on tracking again. Unfortunately, this again cost time loss.

Overall (there were other issues), I'm not really happy with today's progress, but I'm on my way. I finished the day in Springville, NY.

October 3rdDay 2 -Thursday

After leaving Springville, the day was mostly on Hwy 219. It's interesting the gps wanted me to go a different route, but added 30+ miles to the run. It even wanted me to go to the route it had suggested well after I ignored it. I was 1 mile from the McDonalds I had programmed in Bradford, PA, but the gps wanted me to exit the route I was on and go 19.9 miles. Go figure. I don't think I will be buying this brand for my automobile.

Anyway, the day was warm, mostly sunny, with a bit of a head wind, but was a nice ride. I quit at 16:30h (4:30 p.m.) in Lantz Corners, PA.

October 4thDay 3 - Friday

Today started off with wet roads, but no rain. Really a nice ride for the morning, even up the hills I used to think were quite a challenge. Today they just seemed to be there and up I would go. Maybe it's a psychological thing, but when I thought I was maybe on the flats and working too hard, I'd look at the gps computer and see the elevation going up. Then it was okay. At least I knew why I was working.

I also figured out that the gps is maybe okay (yeah, sure), it's the information that's flawed. The manual, even online, tells you nothing. You have to guess what it's terminology means.

I turned off the 'don't use major roads' and today it tracked quite well. To me 'major roads' are freeways or Interstates. Guess not. But nowhere does it tell you what it means.

It's like, "do this to use Cycling" or "this to use Tour Cycling." Never does it explain the difference, or how the programming uses either. So, it's not the computer, it's me. I'm too dumb to understand the difference.

Also, it (the gps) froze today, yet somehow figured out where I was. I stopped at the Royal Drive-In in Ridgeway, PA, (an annual event), and stopped the gps. I restarted it after my milkshake, but I had no idea it wasn't tracking.

In Dubois, a stop was made at McDonalds, and again I stopped the gps. After I restarted it, I continued. I didn't realize until uploading the data it guess-timated my travels between these two points. Oh well, somehow the distance (maybe because of using the bike wheel sensor), seems to be correct.

October 5thDay 4 - Saturday

I wanted to get an early start today. My comrades would have said it was just their usual start time, but I like a later start.

Anyway, I planned on an 8 (ish) departure, but the fog was so think, I had to wait. I ended up out at about my usual time of 9.

If you look at the link, you can see I went up over 5000 feet (almost 6000), down over 5000 feet, but ended the day just a little over the elevation I started at. The hills were a killer. Straight up (not a decent grade) and right straight back down. Frustrating, but I did make it through. You can check out the day by clicking here. I didn't get into Uniontown, PA, until 8:20, but I did what I set out to do today.